Utilizing drones to spray crops and vineyards in difficult terrain is both an economical and time-saving approach that many farmers of high value crops are using for applications. Currently for agricultural pesticides, no label guidance exists for their application using drones and registrants are concerned about the off-label use of their products. There are several types of agricultural drone sprayers that can be purchased off the shelf. For this study, a DJI Agras MG-1P drone was used for testing spray drift in an ambient breeze tunnel (ABT). A consistent 10 mph wind speed was used to determine the downwind deposition produced from a drone application. Filter pads were used as deposition samplers and were placed 4, 8, 16, and 30.5 m downwind from the drone. The drone was tested at two different heights from the tunnel floor (5 and 6 ft). The spray drift was measured with the rooters set at hovering speed at each height. For all tests, the product sprayed was imidacloprid (Admire Pro). Following the label for a foliar application to grape, the application rate was 1.4 fluid ounces product/acre (0.05 lb. ai/A). Four TeeJet AIXR110015 nozzles at 40 PSI were used with an overall application rate of 3 gallons per acre (assuming the drone was flying at 7mph). 1.4 fluid ounces of Admire Pro was added to 3 gallons of water for each test, but only 2.4 gallons were sprayed over a total of 4 minutes for a given test. All filter pads were analyzed for imidacloprid by LC-MS. The resulting analysis will provide registrants a means to evaluate drone applications for off-target spray drift and provide guidance for labeling their use.

Spray drift from drone application

2019 Fall National Meeting

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